Lee Child Danika Yarosh Joins Tom Cruise in ‘Jack Reacher’ Sequel Posted on Wednesday, September 16th, 2015 by Russ Fischer Tom Cruise and Cobie Smulders may have company in the Jack Reacher sequel. Relative newcomer Danika Yarosh, who has a role in Heroes Reborn, is in talks to join the cast of the new Ed Zwick-directed film as a young woman of particular importance to the story. Read More » Lee Child Comments on Next Jack Reacher Film Posted on Tuesday, September 16th, 2014 by Russ Fischer Jack Reacher is almost certainly going to find himself alongside a teen girl in his next movie. The first film adaptation of the long-running novel series by Lee Child was only a modest hit, but a sequel is in development based on the 18th Reacher novel, Never Go Back. In that book, Jack Reacher returns to the HQ of his former Army unit, only to find that the current commander has been relieved of her post as Reacher is implicated in an ugly chain of events. And there’s a young woman who could tie to the guy’s past.

Now we’ve got a Jack Reacher sequel update: director Christopher McQuarrie probably will not return, and Child talks about the reasons for choosing this particular novel as the source. Read More » Will the ‘Jack Reacher’ Sequel Feature a Smart Female Teen Sidekick? Posted on Monday, December 9th, 2013 by Russ Fischer There will almost certainly be a Jack Reacher sequel — the questions are “when,” and “by whom”? Notice that we don’t have to ask which of the many Lee Child novels the film will be based on, because Tom Cruise, Skydance Productions, and Paramount are now developing the most recent book, Never Go Back, as the sequel. (It’ll probably be titled Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, in the parlance of our times.) Those who read all of Child’s novels will know that Never Go Back isn’t quite a standalone story; it is motivated by a phone call Jack Reacher had with the current commanding officer of his old military unit, and he’s spent a couple books trying to get to a base in Virginia to follow up on the call. There’s something a lot more important in this book, however: a smart, super-precocious teen girl.

She could easily end up taking a bigger role in the film than she does in the book, and in so doing make the movie attractive to audiences that didn’t even glance in Jack Reacher‘s direction. Read More » ‘Jack Reacher’ Crosses $200 Million Worldwide, Paramount Working On Sequel Posted on Friday, February 22nd, 2013 by Germain Lussier In January, the rumor coming from Paramount was that the Tom Cruise action film Jack Reacher, which at the time had grossed about $73 million domestic and was about to open in Asia, had to gross $250 million worldwide to generate interest in a sequel. It seems that number may have dropped when executives looked at A) a bookshelf full of potential pre-written sequels by author Lee Child and B) solid international box office receipts. Jack Reacher, directed by Christopher McQuarrie, just crossed $200 million worldwide. While that’s not $250 million, it seems Paramount has begun to move forward with a possible sequel.

Read More » ‘Jack Reacher’ TV Spots Feature Werner Herzog and Brazen Intimidation Posted on Friday, November 16th, 2012 by Russ Fischer Here are two TV spots for the Tom Cruise vehicle Jack Reacher, in which Cruise plays the ex-MP wanderer of the film’s title. Created by author Lee Child, Jack Reacher is a character who lives in more than a dozen novels full of violence and danger. And while the trailers for the film, and these spots, demonstrate that the violence is indeed a part of the big-screen incarnation, they also suggest that it is a bit less dangerous. But at least director Werner Herzog plays the bad guy, and the first of two spots below will give you just a bit of a taste of his approach, in case you missed him in the last theatrical trailer.

Read More » ‘Jack Reacher’ Trailer: “Remember, You Wanted This” Posted on Tuesday, July 3rd, 2012 by Russ Fischer Over the weekend we saw a low-quality Russian-dubbed version of the trailer for Christopher McQuarrie‘s film Jack Reacher in which Tom Cruise plays a serious hardass ex-MP drawn into what seems like an open-and-shut sniper killing. Now the real thing has arrived, and it clears up a couple things. One is that the color palette of the film is nowhere near as dingy as the last look suggested. (We can now see the detail of Reacher’s scars shown as he’s dressing at the opening.) It also begs the question of how well Cruise and the script are really going to mesh with expectations fans have for the character, but I can wait for the full film to figure that out. Otherwise it’s the same trailer, opening with a small monologue from the guy who is arrested for the crime that sets the story in motion, and ending with Reacher demonstrating to a few local tough guys that they aren’t nearly as hard as they want to be. Check it out below.

Read More » ‘Jack Reacher’ International Trailer Suggests Tom Cruise’s Own Version of ‘Drive’ Posted on Sunday, July 1st, 2012 by Russ Fischer A Russian version of the teaser trailer for Christopher McQuarrie‘s Jack Reacher has come online, and it marks the first good look most of us have had at the film. Tom Cruise stars as Lee Child‘s fan-favorite hero Jack Reacher. He’s a former military policeman who lives out his post-Army career as an itinerant who has a tendency to get drawn into violent, weird situations as he explores America. This film is an adaptation of the novel One Shot, in which a sniper kills a handful of people in a midwestern American city, and while in police custody has only one request: “get me Jack Reacher.” While there was no shortage of consternation over the casting of Cruise as Reacher, who in Child’s novels is described as a hulk of a man, the weirdest thing here might be the car-centric editing of the trailer. Those familiar with the Reacher novels know the character isn’t really car-oriented.

The whole car thing, combined with the dingy, moody visuals, help suggest overtones of Drive. It’s an interesting ad angle to take. I’m looking forward to really seeing how the film turned out, but in the meantime check out the Russian trailer below. Sadly, there is no view of Werner Herzog, who plays the villain. Read More » Here’s One Shot of Tom Cruise as ‘Jack Reacher’ Posted on Wednesday, June 27th, 2012 by Russ Fischer Below is a new look at Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher, the title character of Christopher McQuarrie‘s upcoming Paramount film. It’s an old trick to say that Cruise just looks like Cruise here, because of course he does — that’s the whole point of hiring someone at his level of fame, especially to anchor an action thriller. The film Jack Reacher adapts Lee Child‘s novel One Shot, in which the presence of itinerant former military policeman Jack Reacher is requested by a man accused of killing several people at random with a sniper rifle.

The weird thing is: Reacher once arrested the same guy, a former serviceman, for another crime, and so he can’t figure out why the guy now seems to want his help. The film also features a supporting cast with some attention-getting names: Werner Herzog as the villain, and Rosamund Pike, Robert Duvall, Richard Jenkins and Michael Raymond-James (so good in Terriers) in other roles. Check out the first real image of Cruise as Reacher below. Read More » Tom Cruise Knows Some Fans Aren’t Thrilled About Him Playing Jack Reacher in ‘One Shot’ Posted on Wednesday, October 26th, 2011 by Russ Fischer Christopher McQuarrie‘s adaptation of Lee Child‘s thriller novel One Shot is moving forward with Tom Cruise in the lead role of hulking ex-military cop Jack Reacher, who is drawn into a strange plot involving sniper shootings in a mid-size town. To say that fans have been unenthusiastic about that casting choice is an understatement.

A recent re-read of the novel gave me a good idea of how the character will be adapted to suit Cruise, and so I’m ready to see what McQuarrie is going to offer. But I’ve had many conversations with others who aren’t so sure. Cruise seems quite aware of that uncertainty, as he talks publicly about his role in the film. Read More » ‘One Shot’ Adds Michael Raymond-James, From ‘True Blood’ and ‘Terriers’ Posted on Thursday, October 6th, 2011 by Russ Fischer The latest addition to Christopher McQuarrie‘s One Shot, an adaptation of Lee Child‘s novel of the same name that is already set to feature Tom Cruise, Rosamund Pike, David Oyelowo, Robert Duvall, and Richard Jenkins, is Michael Raymond-James. The actor had a role on the well-liked and sadly canceled Terriers, and has been a part of True Blood as well. Now he’ll have a chance to shine as Linsky, a criminal who works for the villain to be played by Werner Herzog, as Jack Reacher (Cruise) tries to uncover the truth behind a strange set of sniper killings in which they’re involved.

That’s the basic news. Hit the break for what the announced character description suggests about the script. Read More » Has One Shot blown it by changing its name to Jack Reacher? | Film | The Guardian Film blog Has One Shot blown it by changing its name to Jack Reacher? The producers of the Lee Childs adaptation, starring Tom Cruise, forgot one rule. Films named after characters usually perform anonymously at the box office Misfire … Tom Cruise, star of Jack Reacher (formerly known as One Shot), in Mission: Impossible 3. Photograph: Allstar Share on Messenger Close So far, Tom Cruise has played his re-entry from the wilderness remarkably well. Tropic Thunder showed that he could make fun of himself. Rock of Ages reminded us that he's able to slot inside a larger ensemble from time to time. Mission: Impossible 4 proved that there's nobody better in the game at flinging themselves around the outside of a skyscraper. But as tactically deft as he's been so far, Cruise is still waiting for a blockbuster star vehicle to come along and fully cement his return as a force to be reckoned with.

It was hoped that this would come in the form of One Shot , an adaptation of the Lee Childs novel co-starring Rosamund Pike, Robert Duvall and Werner Herzog. But yesterday, One Shot took a potentially fatal turn. Yesterday, One Shot officially became Jack Reacher. The reason for this name change is apparently down to the potential of the movies – the character Jack Reacher has appeared in 17 novels now, so there's clearly hope that it'll become another franchise for Cruise. The problem is, though, that naming a film after a lead character is a dangerous business. The most obvious example of this is John Carter. When plans were shelved for it to be called Princess of Mars – ostensibly because audiences hate films with the word "Mars" in the title – Andrew Stanton decided that the movie should be titled after its lead character. Which would have been great, were it not for the fact that the century-old Edgar Rice Burroughs novel it was based on wasn't the universal cultural touchstone that Stanton thought it was. As a result, audiences didn't know what the hell the film was about – other than the fact it had a bland name for a title – and the resulting box-office grosses speak for themselves.

John Carter isn't the only film to be hobbled by this tactic. Michael Clayton (2007) is perhaps George Clooney's best film to date, but it wasn't even one of the top 50 films to be released that year. A lot of that is down to the name. Who is Michael Clayton? A businessman? An astronaut? The back half of a pantomime horse? The promotional images didn't exactly give much away. The same goes for last year's Larry Crowne , a charming little film that died on its backside because nobody knew if Larry Crowne was going to be a likable underdog or a robot ninja from the future. For a film like this to succeed, the name had better be memorable. It had better be called Rocky or Forrest Gump or Dirty Harry or Napoleon Dynamite . These are unusual names. They are not the names of someone who could feasibly work in HR, something that can't be said for Larry Crowne or John Carter. And the notion that a franchise needs to be named after its lead character is hogswash too. For instance, no James Bond film has ever been called James Bond. Indiana Jones's first outing was called Raiders of the Lost Ark .

Even Rambo didn't have the balls to slap his name on the poster first time around. Changing One Shot to Jack Reacher won't make sequels any more feasible. They'll just make people wonder why Jack Reacher has got such a stupid name. It also doesn't help that, regardless of the film he's in, Tom Cruise just generally plays Tom Cruise anyway. The movie title is there to help us decide what sort of Tom Cruise he'll play. In The Last Samurai , the title told us that he played a war hero; something that we wouldn't know if it was called Nathan Algren. Cocktail is more evocative than Brian Flanagan. War of the Worlds is more evocative than Ray Ferrier. Minority Report is more evocative than John Anderton. And One Shot is far more evocative than Jack Reacher. At least One Shot told people what sort of film they'd be seeing. So does Jack Reacher. The problem is, it tells them that they'll be watching a dodgy bargain-bin porno.

Run-of-the-mill 'Jack Reacher' is not hard to grasp FacebookEmail Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Pinterest Run-of-the-mill 'Jack Reacher' is not hard to grasp Based on this run-of-the mill crime thriller and its host of cliches, there doesn't seem much reason to see more of this character, as played by Tom Cruise, even as the idea of a franchise is bandied about . Post to Facebook Run-of-the-mill 'Jack Reacher' is not hard to grasp Based on this run-of-the mill crime thriller and its host of cliches, there doesn't seem much reason to see more of this character, as played by Tom Cruise, even as the idea of a franchise is bandied about . Check out this story on USATODAY.com: CancelSend A link has been sent to your friend's email address. Posted! A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. 14 To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs Run-of-the-mill 'Jack Reacher' is not hard to grasp Claudia Puig, USA TODAY Published 10:58 p.m. ET Dec. 20, 2012 | Updated 4:31 p.m.

ET Dec. 21, 2012 CLOSE x Share Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise), a former military police officer & homicide investigator, attempts to clear the name of a trained military sniper who he believes has been framed. Based on a book in Lee Child's crime series. Tom Cruise returns to action as the mysterious do-gooder. Despite a terrific cast, 'Jack Reacher,' starring Tom Cruise in the title role, offers a mediocre and cliched thriller. (Photo: Karen Ballard, Paramount Pictures) Story Highlights USA TODAY review: ** out of four Stars: Tom Cruise, Rosamund Pike, Richard Jenkins, David Oyelowo, Werner Herzog Rated PG-13; running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes; opens Friday nationwide 46 CONNECT TWEET LINKEDIN 14 COMMENTEMAILMORE Not reaching too far beyond the obvious, Jack Reacher, the mysterious stranger, travels on well-trod turf.

A crime thriller based on Lee Child's novel One Shot, the eponymous Jack Reacher (** out of four; rated PG-13; opening Friday nationwide) stars Tom Cruise as an enigmatic loner, a former military police officer and brave latter-day knight errant who heeds his own moral code above all laws. In other words, he's a flesh-and-blood superhero. Jack is called in by former military sniper James Barr (Joseph Sikora), who is accused of murdering five people at random. Following his arrest, the alleged killer scribbled a cryptic note: "Get Jack Reacher." VIDEO: Tom Cruise attends London premiere 'Reacher' Helen Rodin (Rosamund Pike), the public defender representing Barr, tracks down the elusive Jack and realizes he can prove useful. Super-observant, Reacher catches details that others don't — such as the fact that the killer fired six shots. Helen hires Jack as an investigator and he begins breaking down the minutiae of the murders. The police, especially lead detective Emerson (David Oyelowo), are convinced the killings are a slam-dunk case. Reacher knew the accused in the military and remembers him as a first-rate sniper.

So, his first question is why one of the shots missed a target. Jack questions the honesty of Helen's district attorney father, Alex Rodin (Richard Jenkins), and teams up with Cash (Robert Duvall), an ex-soldier who runs a shooting range. The tricky relationship between Helen and her father is one of the more intriguing parts of the film. Is he crooked? Does he have her best interests at heart, or is he power-mad? Can she trust him? The top-flight ensemble cast, which includes filmmaker Werner Herzog as a shadowy Russian mobster, is generally saddled with bland, one-dimensional parts. Pike brings intelligence and warmth to a rather lackluster role. Cruise is competent as the hard-hearted righter of wrongs, convincing as a guy who's fairly impervious to danger. Reacher is not all that different from the guy he plays in the Mission: Impossible movies. But the movie is a far cry from those well-made spy thrillers. Reacher is limited by a lack of originality and hampered by thematic clichés and generic action sequences. Reacher is tough, cunning and ruthless. He also is a tortured soul.

He pops up in the least expected places and fends off attackers by the dozen. It's a part that would seem tailor-made for Cruise. Except that the character as written on the page — based on the ninth of Child's 17 Reacher novels — is tall and blond. He's also sharp-witted, but there's little evidence of that trait in the dialogue Cruise is given. Director Christopher McQuarrie worked with Cruise on Valkyrie, which was one of the actor's biggest missteps. A credible action star, Cruise's best performances have been playing complex villains in such films as 1999's Magnolia and 2004's Collateral. The movie sets up a subtle romance between Jack and Helen that is more about nuance than consummation. But then Jack is a solitary man. And in a nasty interaction with a girl in a bar, he borders on misogynistic. In the books, Reacher is all about eliminating injustice and meting out punishment to deserving bad guys. But in the movie he spends a lot of time in generic action hero mode, simply running. Despite a terrific cast, Jack Reacher comes up empty-handed.

46 CONNECT TWEET LINKEDIN 14 COMMENTEMAILMORE Read or Share this story: NEVER MISS OUT Life Be a pop culture maven. Get the news, reviews and the juiciest celebrity stories that keep you in the know, Monday-Friday. Lee Child on His New Thriller, Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher and Wandering Heroes | TIME.com Lee Child on His New Thriller, Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher and Wandering Heroes "They’re all page-turners, but this one really goes hell to leather." Follow @TIMECulture If Lee Child’s devoted fans want a true-life thriller, they should check out the author’s numbers. Child, whose iconic character Jack Reacher is now an internationally celebrated hero, has more than 60 million copies of his novels in print in 96 countries and nearly 60 languages. His 17th Reacher book, A Wanted Man, just hit shelves. And in December, Hollywood hopes to ride the Reacher rocket with a Christmas film based on Child’s book One Shot, and starring Tom Cruise. TIME caught up with the prolific author by phone at his home in New York City: TIME: Your 17th book! How do you keep it fresh?

LEE CHILD: I made one very smart choice in the beginning, which was to give Reacher no job and no location. Unlike any other series, he’s not a cop in LA; he’s not a private eye in Boston. He can be anywhere and do anything. So to me, each book is entirely fresh and new. I’m really excited about each one. What’s different about A Wanted Man? This one is faster—it literally starts at 80 m.p.h. and it gets quicker and quicker all the way through. It’s a very compressed time period, and it really is accelerated. They’re all page-turners, but this one really goes hell to leather. Tell me about Jack Reacher. How would you describe him? He’s two things in one. On the surface, he is an ex-military cop who is suddenly dumped out into the civilian world. He doesn’t fit in, and he spends his time wandering America, seeing the things that he’s never had time to see before. He’s trying to stay out of trouble, but masterfully once a year getting into trouble.

He’s also the descendant of a very ancient tradition: the noble loner, the knight errant, the mysterious stranger, who has shown up in stories forever… He is a truly universal character. I think I lucked into a very fortunate position, where I’m writing the modern iteration of a character who has existed for thousands of years. (MORE: No Easy Day Bumps Fifty Shades From Top Spot ) Is he you? How much does he share with you? All of us write wish fulfillment. It’s all some kind of idealized autobiography. The answer is that I would be him if I could get away with it. The film Jack Reacher will be out as a film as of December, and Tom Cruise will be playing the title character. I’m very excited about it, and I was never worried about it. I probably was the least worried person involved with the whole thing. I used to do this for a living, more or less. I was in television drama, which is a first cousin to the movies, and I trust myself to make the right decisions. I sold it to the right people, and they have done a fantastic job. The proof of that is took seven years for it to happen.

That is because the team around it was so committed to getting it right. There’s been a little bit of griping that Tom Cruise isn’t exactly the right actor to play Jack Reacher, partly because of height. Jack Reacher is 6’5’’ and Tom Cruise is not known for being tall. Cruise is a character actor. He really gets into a role. He can understand the role. He can project the vibe. But the only real answer is go see the movie. I guarantee you will come out of it and you will think, “What was I worried about?” Were you there for the filming? Yes, I was there for quite a lot of the filming. They even gave me a little cameo part. I play a cop. (MORE: SEALs Turned Authors: A Military Reading List ) Some of your readers probably don’t realize that you’re British by birth. You’re writing about America. How does that affect your perceptions? One of the reasons people like the books is because I am an outsider, in the same way the reader is an outsider. Both of us see things that are too commonplace for Americans to see because they have lived with them all their lives.

I think the outsider’s point of view is always illuminating. Is there a big difference between what American readers want and what British readers want? I really don’t think there is. The reactions are exactly the same on both sides of the Atlantic. As you move a little more into western and northern Europe, they’re a little more worried about how lawless Reacher is. They love him, but they’re kind of cross at themselves for loving him, because they think he should be a little more law-abiding. That’s where the divide occurs—in the English Channel, rather than in the Atlantic. Are you an American citizen? No, I’m not. I’m eligible, but I kind of prefer being an outsider. I heard that you’re a smoker. Does that go along with your writing? I think we all have some vice. Usually it’s drinking, but I don’t drink much—I smoke instead. I understand that it’s not good for you, and I understand that it might produce a bad end, but what I’m saying to people is, “My 60 years have been a lot more exciting than your 90, believe me.” Who would Reacher vote for? Obviously, he can’t vote.

But he’d look at the candidates and say he’s voting for the black guy who came of age on the streets of Chicago. That’s Reacher’s type of guy. Where next for Jack Reacher? | Den of Geek Search Where next for Jack Reacher? With uncertainty surrounding the Jack Reacher's movie future, James looks at which of Lee Child's books might work as a sequel... j Last month saw the long awaited on screen debut for Lee Child’s literary creation Jack Reacher, a film which had been raising eyebrows across the globe since its announcement. First off, there was the choice of which of Lee Child’s 14 Jack Reacher adventures then published would be used for the character’s debut film - but we’ll get to that later. By far, the news that caused the greatest fuss was the casting of the man who would fill his not so small shoes. Casting Jack Reacher was always going to be a nightmare. The character’s physical appearance, which had been repeatedly played up in Child’s pages was simply impossible to replicate. It could be argued then that no one was done any favours when Tom Cruise was put in the role. The general reaction was that Jack Reacher: The Movie was already doomed.

No one was going to be able to buy Cruise as the character, and despite Lee Child insisting that Reacher’s physical appearance was a metaphor for an unstoppable force, he really wasn’t fooling anyone, having shoved said appearance heavily down our throats throughout his novels. Now it's January 2013, and Jack Reacher has been unleashed on the movie going public in all its Cruise-shaped glory. Was it the complete disaster that many had predicted? No, it was actually quite good, thanks in no small part (no pun intended) to Tom Cruise. While it wasn’t a performance for the ages, Tom Cruise hit the mark more than not with his portrayal of Reacher. He was helped considerably by director Christopher McQuarrie’s script. McQuarrie played up the non-physical side of Reacher for his movie. Many of Cruise’s lines were short and sharp, all business with little waffle. This was reminiscent of how the Reacher character converses in the book. Exposition was largely left to Rosamund Pike’s lawyer, Helen Rodin. Cruise also nailed the Reacher attitude. His near ambivalence to the sniper shootings which open the movie was conveyed extremely well.

Reacher is a guy who just wants to be left alone, and Cruise made us believe this. Perhaps one of the biggest masterstrokes in McQuarrie’s direction of Cruise was that he'd clearly forbidden Tom from smiling. Cruise raises a smirk or two, but at no point does he flash those pearly whites. Doing so would have immediately destroyed the character. As a long time Reacher fan, I felt that Cruise did a good enough job with the character. Putting to one side the whole physical appearance thing, everything else about the character was represented well, and although Cruise never approached replacing the image of Reacher I have when reading, he was far from the catastrophe that some had expected. When a Jack Reacher movie was announced as pressing ahead a couple of years ago, it would have been logical to assume that it would be based on Lee Child’s debut Reacher novel, Killing Floor. It remains one of the best of Child’s books, and although it’s not an origin story for the character, it contains one event which has subsequently been felt throughout the series. So it was with a certain amount of puzzlement to learn that Reacher’s first cinematic outing would be based on his ninth book, One Shot.

One Shot is not a book held in high regard amongst Reacher fans. It is one of, if not the worst of Lee Child’s books starring the character so far. The feeling has always been that its story wasn’t all that inspiring, it was drawn out and just a bit boring. In its narrative, One Shot the movie didn’t differ a whole lot from One Shot the book. As is often the way in book to film adaptations, there was a character trimmed here and there, while some characters, notably the villains, had a reduced impact. In the novel there was a much greater exploration of Werner Herzog’s big bad, The Zec. Even then, though, the guy was never one of the best villains that Lee Child has conceived for Jack Reacher. A lot of reviews heaped praise on Werner Herzog’s villain rather than Cruise’s Reacher, something this writer feels was a total injustice. Half the time Herzog looked utterly bored with everything that was going on around him, and for the other 50 per cent, he was a bit too pantomime. One of the failings of Jack Reacher was that its cookie cutter bad guys could have come from any action movie of the last few years.

In this respect, it could be argued that Christopher McQuarrie chose the wrong book to use as Reacher's launchpad. As entertaining as it is, the film leaves little lasting impression, apart from with Cruise’s central performance. Maybe that was always going to be the way, though. Tom Cruise as Reacher deserved to be the film's focal point. There have been a good number of occasions when films have been accused of letting the bad guys overshadow the heroes - Tim Burton’s Batman movies being one of the best examples. By choosing to go first with one of the lesser books in terms of story and villains, the film leaves the focus on Reacher. Although Jack Reacher wasn’t an origin story as we’ve become accustomed to in many franchise openers, if its primary aim was to introduce the character for further, more interesting adventures, then McQuarrie made a shrewd, if a little risky, choice in picking this one. Jack Reacher took $45 million in its opening two weeks in the United States alone. That it cost $60 million to make - a relatively modest amount by current standards - indicates that it will end up in the black for Tom Cruise and Paramount.

Given that most fans seem to have liked Cruise in the role too, then it’d be safe to assume that chins are now being thoughtfully stroked with regards to Jack Reacher 2, although recent news stories may have indicated otherwise. Nothing has been announced yet as to which of Lee Child’s novels will form the basis of a sequel should it happen, but both the author and Christopher McQuarrie have made their ideas heard for a more rural set movie. There’s no shortage of Reacher stories set in a wilderness location, and this must send Killing Floor to near the top of the list. Killing Floor thrusts Reacher straight into the situation of being arrested in a small town over breakfast. It's no nonsense, and now that the character's been introduced, there's no reason that the film couldn’t do the same. Other Reacher stories that could be an option include Echo Burning, Persuader, Nothing To Lose, 61 Hours and Worth Dying For. The latter of those has already been mentioned as a possibility, and would be a great story to adapt, as it's amongst Child’s best, and features some extremely nasty and memorable bad guys.

Some of its plot lines do revolve around the climax to 61 Hours, the book which preceded it, but not so much that it couldn’t be easily worked around. Lee Child has said that 61 Hours was a favourite for a Jack Reacher movie sequel at one time. It’s a solid offering, but takes place almost completely during a severe snowstorm in South Dakota, with the weather quite integral to the plot. This is something that would push production costs up, no doubt. Echo Burning and Nothing To Lose suffer a little bit from the same failings as One Shot. Both are better stories on the whole than One Shot, but neither of them has anything all that memorable about them to put them in mind for the big screen treatment. Persuader, on the other hand, would be this writer’s personal choice for Jack Reacher 2. The book sees Reacher going undercover in a remote location with a bad guy he previously believed dead. For twists and tension, it’s the finest of Lee Child’s books yet. Looking further ahead to a third Jack Reacher movie, there are three novels which immediately seem to lend themselves to this.

The Hard Way takes place in the glamorous locations of New York City and erm, Norfolk, but would up the ante by sending Reacher transatlantic. Without Fail raises the threat level that Reacher is involved with in a plot revolving around presidential assassination. It also introduces one of the few recurring characters in the series, Frances Neagley, described as a female version of Reacher, which would bring another element to the franchise. Or, if Paramount wants to go for a more ensemble piece (as Child once suggested), following in the footsteps of Cruise’s other blockbuster series Mission: Impossible, then Bad Luck And Trouble, in which Reacher reunites with his old military police unit, including Frances Neagley, might definitely be ripe for the character’s third outing. If Tom Cruise were to decide he didn’t want to return to the role, then an easy get out clause would be to choose to adapt one of the two books which take place earlier in Reacher’s life. Of those, The Affair would be the most suitable. It’s a small town thriller which tells the story of just how Reacher became the wanderer he is today - essentially his origin story.

One name that has been banded about as a possible Cruise replacement for Reacher is Ryan Gosling. If he can sort out the horrible weedy voice he employed in Gangster Squad, then he could certainly make for a decent, younger Jack Reacher. At the moment, the jury is still out on whether Reacher will return to the big screen, with the film still to open in some parts of the world. It’d be nice to see Tom Cruise given another chance to play the character after he impressed with what was a poor story on the whole. Given the popularity of Child’s books, it’s hard to believe that Jack Reacher won’t return on screen in some way, shape or form. What that will be, for now, remains to be seen. ‘Jack Reacher’ Trailer: Tom Cruise Brings Lee Child’s Character to Life ‘Jack Reacher’ Trailer: Tom Cruise Brings Lee Child’s Character to Life Share Comment The teaser trailer for Jack Reacher was just that: a tease. Today we can offer the full trailer, with Tom Cruise as the titular character in Oscar-winning writer-director Christopher McQuarrie’s new film (which is based on the novel One Shot by author Lee Child).

Here, we get a better sense of who, exactly, Reacher is – quite literally, in fact, as the trailer opens with exposition from David Oyelowo (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Lincoln ) breaking down the character’s history and personality. We see that Cruise’s stoic manner contrasts with his reckless behavior; he keeps a stern-but-calm expression while delivering debilitating blows to his opponents, outracing police cars, and telling a man “I’d like to kill you” over the phone. Longtime Reacher fans know that Cruise is far from a good match for the character as described in Child’s source novel (where he is 6′ 5” tall, weighs 210-250 lbs., and has blue eyes with dirty blonde hair); it’s his intimidating physical stature that informs Reacher’s fearless behavior and confidence. Cruise, by comparison, is playing the anti-hero as someone who can keep his emotions in-check because he knows how to handle any dangerous situation – with laser-like precision in combat maneuvers and quick thinking.

The new trailer does a good job of distinguishing Reacher from Cruise’s other personas, such as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible and Vincent in Collateral; we even get some humor from Cruise at the end, without breaking character. That said, it’s hard to argue Reacher’s behavior wouldn’t make more sense if the actor playing him bore a stronger resemblance to a Dolph Lundgren or Chris Hemsworth-type (ie. a ‘big guy’). Check out the domestic and international posters for Jack Reacher (via Yahoo! Movies ) below: CLICK FOR LARGER VERSION Jack Reacher, in other words, might suffer from the miscasting of its protagonist – not to mention, fail to satisfy fans who would have preferred a purist interpretation of Child’s creation (re: not Tom Cruise). However, the overall film does seem like a reasonably-entertaining action-thriller, complete with a solid cast that includes the likes of Rosamund Pike (Wrath of the Titans), Robert Duvall, Jai Courtney ( A Good Day to Die Hard ), Richard Jenkins ( Killing Them Softly ), and Werner Herzog as what looks to be a great villain.

Here is the official synopsis for Jack Reacher: When a gunman takes five lives with six shots, all evidence points to the suspect in custody. On interrogation, the suspect offers up a single note: “Get Jack Reacher!” So begins an extraordinary chase for the truth, pitting Jack Reacher against an unexpected enemy, with a skill for violence and a secret to keep. Look for Jack Reacher when it opens in theaters on December 21st, 2012. – Tom Cruise as Lee Child’s Fictional Hero in ‘Jack Reacher’ - The New York Times The New York Times Movies |A Big Name Steps Into Big Shoes Search Continue reading the main story Photo Tom Cruise (standing) in the title role of “Jack Reacher,” based on the hero in Lee Child’s thrillers. Credit Karen Ballard/Paramount Pictures JACK REACHER, the itinerant head-butting hero of Lee Child ’s best-selling series of crime thrillers, has finally made it to the big screen. An adaptation of Mr. Child’s 2005 novel “One Shot,” retitled “Jack Reacher,” written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie and starring Tom Cruise , opens on Dec. 21.

What took them so long? The Reacher books have been appearing yearly since 1997, and if ever a literary property seemed a no-brainer for the movies, it’s this one. The books have a strong, original central character and taut, linear narratives, full of action and incident; they often feature strong female characters and are surprisingly popular among women; and there are lots of them — 17 titles so far, outnumbering even the original James Bond novels. They are a franchise built around a former military policeman roaming the United States utterly without baggage, personal or otherwise, righting wrongs according to his own no-nonsense code of justice. Writing in The New York Times, Janet Maslin called Reacher “one of the most enduring action heroes on the American landscape.” Mr. McQuarrie, who has worked on several Cruise-related projects (including “Valkyrie,” which he wrote with Nathan Alexander and produced, and “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol,” for which he did some revisions), knows his way around Hollywood and has a very simple explanation for why it took so long to get a Reacher film made. “There are no transforming robots,” he said in a telephone interview.

“There is no paranormal activity.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story He added: “The problem is that Jack Reacher is not 22, and he doesn’t have superpowers. He appears in novels that are detective thrillers, and that’s a sort of movie they don’t make anymore. How do you market it?” Continue reading the main story Mr. Child, who worked as a television director and producer in England before becoming a novelist, also knows his way around show business. Not long ago, stretching out his longs legs on a coffee table in the East Side apartment he uses as a writing studio, he leaned back in a chair, and, as if giving a PowerPoint presentation, suggested three reasons the Reacher books might be an awkward fit for the movies. Photo Mr. Child. Credit Jennifer S. Altman for The New York Times The first reason is — never mind, we’ll come back to the first reason. The second reason is that the books are less eventful — or less cinematically eventful — than they seem, because a lot of the action takes place inside Reacher’s head. “His thought processes, his quirks, his intuitions are what make him interesting,” Mr. Child said.

“How do you get that out of his head and onto the screen?” The third reason has to do with the stubborn nature of the character. “In Hollywood they have these unshakable conclusions,” he said. “And one of them is that a character must have an arc, must go for a journey and learn something, must be different at the end. But Reacher does none of that. He never changes. He doesn’t learn anything, because he knows it all from the beginning.” Even so, there was no lack of Hollywood interest. The books have been under option to one studio or another since the first one was published 15 years ago. But nothing happened until Mr. Cruise and Paramount came along in 2005, after “One Shot” came out. Mr. Child said he was impressed by everyone involved, especially Mr. McQuarrie, whose screenplay he called “outstanding.” “I bet it’s the least altered first draft ever,” he said. “This is not starry eyes. I made my living amongst these wolves for years, and I can tell the good from the bad.” Mr.

McQuarrie pointed out that while he has had some success as a screenwriter (his script for “The Usual Suspects” won an Oscar in 1996), he was far from a sure bet as a director, and his budget was far from large. Until now he had made only one other film, “The Way of the Gun,” which came out in 2000 and, despite some good reviews, fizzled at the box office. He began working on “Jack Reacher” without a lot of confidence that the movie would ever be made. “I didn’t think they were thinking, ‘Yes!’ ” he said. “I think they were thinking, ‘Good luck with that one.’ ” He didn’t necessarily write the script with Mr. Cruise in mind, he added, but once Mr. Cruise decided to play Reacher, the project suddenly became “something they didn’t have a reason to say no to.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story This brings us back to Mr. Child’s Reason No. 1, which is the problem of casting a Reacher movie.

As fictional characters go, Reacher is a little underspecified, which makes readers feel so proprietary about him: in our own heads, we help create the character. But the one thing everyone knows about Reacher is that he is big — 6 foot 5 and 250 pounds or so — and not bad looking, exactly, but a little intimidating. One of his many female friends in the books describes him as a condom stuffed with walnuts. When word got out that Mr. Cruise, who is neither tall nor walnutlike, had agreed to star in the movie, many of Mr. Child’s fans became apoplectic. “I know Jack Reacher, and Tom Cruise is no Jack Reacher,” one of them commented online. Photo In the film: Mr. Cruise, far left, Mr. Child and Rosamund Pike. Credit Karen Ballard/Paramount Pictures Mr. Child said he understood his readers’ concerns and was grateful they cared so much. “That’s the gold standard for a writer — to create a character that inspires such passion,” he said, but he pointed out that Reacher wasn’t just about size. “There’s also the menace, the intelligence, the silent, contemplative nature,” he said. Mr.

Child, whose real name is Jim Grant and who is himself 6 foot 5, laughed and added: “Besides, no one in Hollywood is tall. In that whole ZIP code they’re all small people. Even people you think are big are not big.” Mr. McQuarrie agreed. “When has there ever been a 6-5, blond-haired, blue-eyed American actor?” he said. “He’s never existed, ever. So you’re out of the gate accepting compromise. There’s a very exclusive club of people who could play Jack Reacher, and a lot of them are playing characters like Jack Reacher.” The list gets smaller, he went on, when you factor in some of Reacher’s other qualities, like his mental lightness and acuity, and narrows still more when you need an actor with the clout to get the movie made for a certain budget. “At the end there’s only one guy,” he said. “Without Tom you wouldn’t have the movie, and you wouldn’t have the movie the way you have it.

Tom fiercely defended what makes Reacher Reacher, the brutality, the complexity — the things that usually fall victim in the first round of studio development.” Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Privacy Policy Speaking from England, where he was filming “All You Need Is Kill,” Mr. Cruise laughed when asked about his lack of resemblance to Reacher. “I just didn’t worry about it,” he said. “I looked at the book and I thought, ‘This is a character.’ What I liked is that he’s a sort of analog character in a digital world.” He added: “The height, the size — those are characteristics, not a character. I was more worried about things like the fight scenes: How do we get the right style? How do I play that character?” In the movie Mr. Child appears in a cameo as a police desk sergeant returning to Reacher his sole possession, a toothbrush, and he said he saw that scene as a symbolic passing of the baton — author handing off to actor. “You can say, ‘Oh you would say that, wouldn’t you?’ ” he said. “But I’m not that guy.

If I didn’t like it, I would say so, loud and clear. If they screwed up, I would burn their house down.” No one associated with “Jack Reacher” wants to talk too much about a sequel, for fear of jinxing things, but if this movie works, there will almost certainly be others, and Mr. Cruise said he was eager to appear in them. “That’s the beauty of it,” Mr. McQuarrie said. “If it works, then they have to make more. Then we are the transforming robots.” A version of this article appears in print on December 9, 2012, on Page AR13 of the New York edition with the headline: A Big Name Steps Into Big Shoes. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Reader reactions to 'Jack Reacher': The fans are furious - latimes Reader reactions to 'Jack Reacher': The fans are furious December 21, 2012 |By Carolyn Kellogg Tom Cruise plays the title character in "Jack Reacher." (Karen Ballard / Paramount…) Author Lee Child created a killer character with Jack Reacher.

A brutal ex-military officer with a thirst for justice, he's a force — a massive force. Six-foot-five, 220-250 lbs., with a 50-inch chest is specified on Child's website . For months, fans of the books — 17 so far — have been anticipating the film "Jack Reacher," which opens this weekend, with comments such as: "hope it flops." They are not looking forward to seeing Tom Cruise, not known for his bulk, portray the hero of Child's novels. The comments on an earlier Jacket Copy post reveal just how furious Reacher fans are. Here's a sample: Mark Bray: "A movie like this should be made for loyal fans of the book series. To those who don't know who Jack Reacher is, this is just another action movie, who cares. To fans of Reacher/Child, this is a joke. This movie is a mistake for Cruise and Child, if you can call making tens of millions of dollars a mistake.

But playing a role that he is comically unsuited for will only hurt Cruise's career, and a lot of Lee Child fans feel betrayed for letting this happen." Jackie Hulbert: "My vote is a BIG BIG NO NO NO NO NO NO NO to seeing it — hitting Hollywood big whigs where it hurts. They've done it to us for years by putting the popular, oh so wrong, individual in a role thinking it will draw in more crowds. I think it's time we took a stand ... stand outside the cashier's box and not pay to go in." Melody Overland: "I WAS going to see it. I am SOOO in lust with Reacher. So when I saw the trailer I was SOOOO disappointed. Cruise is NOT Reacher. Channing Tatum so IS. I can not believe they actually used an arrogant overexposed short IMBECILE to create such an awesome character. I will not see it and it literally RUINED the whole character for me. HOW COULD THEY DO THIS?" Lori Erickson: "'Tom Cruise?

He'd be a perfect Jack Reacher!' said no one ever..." Paul Lovegrove: "like thousands of Reacher fans, I won't be wasting my money on this ... movie." Laura Seager: "I totally agree with every other fan that is saying Tom Cruise IS NOT Jack Reacher. I am so upset that they chose Tom to play this role. I will not pay money to see this movie, either. Get a real man to play that role and I will be the first in line to see that movie." Sally Ross: "When I heard about the choice of Tom Cruise to play Jack Reacher, I was stupefied. This casting has ruined it for me. Even reading and listening to the books are spoiled now, since as I'm reading/listening, I keep trying to imagine Tom Cruise as the hero Reacher. Simply not possible. Most ridiculous casting ever -- and I will not be able to go to the movie. Am totally perplexed by this choice.

Such a shame, since I would have LOVED to see a REAL Jack Reacher on the screen." Jere Seibert: "It appears that I am not the only one who believes that Cruise is too short (6-8"), too small (70+ lbs), and too old (10-12 years). Even the best of actors (which Cruise is not) would not be able to overcome these handicaps. Better luck next time for the ''franchise.'" The filmmakers did get something right. The film is roughly based on the Reacher novel "One Shot," which is set in a heartland city -- and the movie was shot in Pittsburgh. ALSO:

Question: Who played the title role of Jack Reacher in the 2012 film of Lee Child's novel 'One Shot?
Answer: Tom Cruise